Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Cravath's associate-development model is one of its most distinctive published features. New associates choose among Corporate, Litigation, Tax, Executive Compensation and Benefits, and Trusts and Estates. The firm says it primarily recruits lawyers at the beginning of their careers, either after law school or following a clerkship.

Within Corporate, Litigation and Tax, associates work with a partner or small group of partners before rotating to another team in the same department. The rotations continue through the associate years. The purpose, as Cravath describes it, is to build experience across a department's work rather than confining a lawyer immediately to a narrow specialty. These are departmental rotations, not a promise that every associate moves between all five departments.

The firm emphasizes direct partner oversight of training and development within this structure. Its published explanation also connects rotations with preparation for partnership and the ability to handle different client problems within a practice. The concrete difference for students is the relationship between assignment, supervision and breadth of training within a chosen department.